Balta1701

QUOTE (lostfan @ Jul 7, 2009 -> 04:43 PM) Who, the illegals? What's their alternative? Mexico is 100% safe these days.

QUOTE (lostfan @ Jul 7, 2009 -> 04:39 PM) IMO the current situation is basically legalized slavery. Except it's not legal, it's turning a blind eye.

QUOTE (kapkomet @ Jul 7, 2009 -> 04:35 PM) That's not the only reason (Dem voters) that I oppose it. #3 is the best option - a work program. Why are you so excited to welcome 20,000,000 people to the citizenship of the USA in one fell swoop? I mean, they deserve everything for breaking the law and crossing that border! It's a slap in the face to those who came here the right way. I have no problem with it being a work program, but I have a problem with it being a work program that doesn't eventually offer a path to citizenship. That's the indentured servitude part. "You want to form a union? You want better wages? You don't want your hands falling off? You want the doors to the bathroom unlocked? Screw you, you're fired, back to Mexico with you." You have to give them a path to citizenship so that eventually they earn the way out of that. The weird thing though...you just opposed that. The proposal as discussed last time Bush brought it up would have been to come forwards, register, pay a fine, and if you stay with your employer or stay here legally for long enough, you can then earn citizenship. But you just dismissed the proposal as discussed last time.

QUOTE (kapkomet @ Jul 7, 2009 -> 04:29 PM) Did I say that? You've opposed any measure that would give them any degree of citizenship on the grounds that it would give the Democrats more voters and then they'd have to have health care. The other options are: 1. Deport em all! 2. Do nothing 3. A system that legalizes them but doesn't give them a path to citizenship. Problem of course is that it makes them an indentured servant of whatever company they work for; they can never improve their conditions because they get deported if they get fired.

QUOTE (Palehosefan @ Jul 7, 2009 -> 04:12 PM) Agree, and it started for me when he dealt Chauncy Billups for Allen Iverson. Detroit is sinking fast. In the current NBA, with his roster, I don't see any problem giving up on this season and committing to gathering cap space and rebuilding around Stuckey, Prince, etc. Even with Billups they weren't winning the East again. It's blowing their cap space like they did that makes the Billups/Iverson swap make no sense.

Pistons ready to hire Cavs assistant coach John Kuester.

Demagoguery makes my brain hurt. I'm going for food.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Jul 7, 2009 -> 03:43 PM) Wow 15 pages on a rumor that hasn't even mentioned us yet? Damn... Halladay might actually take a Gavin Floyd + prospects. You know, I might actually be more willing to move Gavin than I am to move Flowers. You get a pitcher back, you keep some semblance of a 2011 board in tact.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jul 7, 2009 -> 03:36 PM) BS. Jordan Danks was taken care of quite nicely for a 7th round draft pick. If trading him gives the White Sox a better chance to win, they won't keep him around because he's John's little brother, and I'm sure if Roy Halladay came back in the deal, John might understand pretty well, especially if he was getting sized for a ring a little while later. I'm not saying KW will openly shop Jordan, but if Toronto said he needed to be included to get Halladay, and the package is reasonable enough to KW, he'd be gone. For all I know Toronto has enough OF anyway, but to say he's not available when attempting to acquire a player of Halladay's ilk, it would be stupid. I stand by my point. I think the Sox make it a point to try to be a better organization than that to people, and I think it benefits them in the long term. Where could we ever get off asking again a person to switch his agent away from Boras if that's what we do to a family that listens to our request? Why would you willingly sign a contract with that team if you're a FA? Wouldn't you demand extra NTC protection, that sort of thing?

QUOTE (kapkomet @ Jul 7, 2009 -> 03:31 PM) It's not "legit". There's no actual reform proposal on the table, not even the outlines of one right now, and you can already tell that any effort to reform the system wouldn't be legit.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jul 7, 2009 -> 03:30 PM) While its probably a longshot Halladay is ever a White Sox, if it was because of a reluctance to give up Tyler Flowers or Jordan Danks, it would be stupid. This is one of the best if not the best pitcher in baseball. Everyone at AA and AAA should be fair game for Toronto. Jordan Danks is not an option because of his brother and we all ought to understand that. Both he and his brother switched agents and specifically worked with this team. If you're trading Jordan, you better be dealing John at the same time, because otherwise, you're taking advantage of that family and treating them like garbage.

QUOTE (kapkomet @ Jul 7, 2009 -> 03:26 PM) After "the law to get more Democrat voters" passes (I mean immigration). So now we see the true reason for why you folks oppose legit immigration reform.

Wow.

Michael Lewis on AIGFP and Joe Cassano. Seriously, I read this article and started unconsciously humming "The man who sold the world".

QUOTE (Princess Dye @ Jul 7, 2009 -> 02:38 PM) I have this feeling that they drafted that recent catcher knowing Flowers could be trade bait. I know you stockpile people and that people change positions, but Flowers seems like the quintessential 'might not pan out but has loads of intrigue for now' asset Cant really trade him for a guy who makes Javy look like nothing though, he'll have to be in an impressive package sadly I see where you're going, but I just can't get past the big board perspective. It looks to be this simple to me; this teams' catching spot was a disaster for years before we signed AJ. Unfortunately, AJ isn't immortal; he's getting up there in years at a very demanding position, and his contract runs through the end of 2010. Quite simply, best case scenario for our catching position is we need a new catcher on opening day of 2011. Worst case scenario we need one sooner. Even if we try to extend AJ's deal, to start the 2011 season he'll be 34 years old. There is every reason to expect he's going to start simply wearing down pretty soon. Tyler Flowers right now looks like he's on track to be able to hit the big leagues at least part time next year, and perhaps take over a position full time in 2011. That's exactly the schedule we need a catcher to be on. Maybe in the back rooms they've decided they don't like him and they need to move him before other people decide not to like him, but simply, he's on the right schedule to be exactly what we need when we need it. Moving him now is committing to either spending a lot of money to keep AJ for 2011 at age 34 and beyond as the starter and gambling he won't show a dropoff or start getting hurt until the other guy we drafted is up a few years later, or it's condemning us to the catching debacle we had in the early 2000's, catcher after catcher, Jamie Burke after Ben Davis, random trades for Sandy Alomar, and on and on, unless we decide to blow serious money on that position in the FA market.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Jul 7, 2009 -> 12:29 PM) How can one love a movie dominated by Jar Jar Binks, absurdly Japanese stereotype bad guys, and uncomfortably silly dialogue? You just have to fast forward through to the Obi Wan/Darth Maul lightsaber duel. That was pretty sweet.

The new Yankee Stadium has allowed more homeruns in 1/2 of a season this year than 8 ballparks did all of last year.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Jul 7, 2009 -> 12:36 PM) Its simple economics. China is started to heavily support the manufacture of alternate sources like solar and wind, because they want into the market (why I've been saying we need to move quickly). To support such business, clearly, China will make sure they use a lot of it. So yeah, actually, they will definitely be doing that (though not for any environmental reasons). Cleaning up their cities though will provide them environmental benefits, something they've probably taken in to account.

QUOTE (kapkomet @ Jul 7, 2009 -> 12:30 PM) Oh, except 100's of coal fired plants that they have going right now. Yea. Ok. Many of which they're efforting to make more efficient or to replace with clean energy technology. They're investing more money in clean energy than any other country in the world except Germany. A number of those new coal fired power plants they're opening are designed to produce energy more efficiently than the older ones they're replacing. Here is the summary of their current steps that I posted here a few weeks ago. They're quite frankly doing more than we are to clean up, and if we continue to bury our heads in the sand, they're going to beat the Hell out of us.

QUOTE (kapkomet @ Jul 7, 2009 -> 12:24 PM) You're naive as hell if you think that the Chicomms will just roll over and do things "because America's doing it" - just as an example. Except for the fact that they're already doing exactly that.

QUOTE (kapkomet @ Jul 7, 2009 -> 12:19 PM) You're misunderstanding what I'm saying, I think. INSURANCE should be something that's turned over to individuals. The tax breaks that employers get, individuals could get. Re: employers and that "bump in pay" - yea right. But really, your care is determined by your employer. Is that right? So is all health care the same? There's one thing you're missing, and it's the one we keep coming back to; scale. You put me out there on the market on my own buying insurance and frankly I'm outgunned, especially if insurers have the right to turn down your family because of any reason they want. You're purchasing insurance against something that might happen to you in the future; you have no ability to guarantee at the time of purchase what type of quality you'll get if you need the insurer to work. That's one of the reasons I keep ranting against insurers; they spend so much money trying to deny you care once you get in to their system. And when you throw in the fact that, as I presented a week or so ago, much of the country is considered "Highly concentrated" in being served by only 1 or 2 insurers at max, you really don't have a lot of choices. When you go through a company, you have the small advantage in that the company has numbers. The insurer can't bully them around as much because they have more negotiating power than you do personally. They have the ability to work at cost-control on different levels. They can't deny an employee as easily based on preexisting conditions or find ways around paying their end when a full company is involved. Even in a highly concentrated market, you gain just a little bit of leverage.

QUOTE (BearSox @ Jul 7, 2009 -> 10:14 AM) The first two prequels did suck, but the 3rd one was really good. My favorite of all of them is probably Empire Strikes Back. I wouldn't say really good. I'd say it was adequate at best. But yeah, you're right on Empire.

QUOTE (Stan Bahnsen @ Jul 7, 2009 -> 09:46 AM) The Central, hell, that's a World Series lineup and rotation. Which one of those 5 goes to the bullpen?

QUOTE (jasonxctf @ Jul 7, 2009 -> 09:44 AM) the key word is had... not will have. What type of future will a 32 year old pitcher who's gone 220IP+ over the past 3 years, have in the next 2-3 years. (even though he's only signed thru next season) Will a 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 version of Roy Halladay (so 33, 34, 35 and 36 yrs old) be greater than Tyler Flowers, Aaron Pordea, Clayton Richard and Chris Getz's version in 2011, 2012, 2013. That's got to be the big question. Short term, 2009 only, its a steal. Long term?????????? Especially when you factor in the money.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Jul 7, 2009 -> 09:25 AM) This is good. You internalize externalities to the consumer, make them responsible for the costs by way of the products they buy, and you encourage innovation and more accurate views into the true costs of their choices. government stepping in doesn't always create such good things of course, but in this case, it sure did. Which is of course why I'm hopeful that even the weak version of a cap and trade bill the House just passed will be more effective than anyone thinks. Turn the market loose, make the costs of coal fired electricity and oil fired automobiles something the customer has to bear more directly, give it a few years, and I think we'll be shocked at how rapid and effective the changes are.